Have rented office space from the Israel Association of Journalists for the past 36 years.
As journalists who work in Israel electronic media begin to retire, they tell us their secrets of the trade, one of which is that they often reserve their most egregious and tendentious news reports on Orthodox Jews for Friday night, when Sabbath observers cannot respond
A rumor may surface on Friday night. For example, a story that someone with a kippa and tallis over his shirt has allegedly attacked someone who is not observant. The journalist who reports the story has not had time to verify the news item, but his or her news outlet solicits reactions from across the spectrum of opinion, except for the Orhodox, who are of course not available for comment.
This week, after Israel election results saw an unprecedented 34 Knesset seats in the hands of Orthodox political parties, who will form a coalition with 32 members of the Likud to form the new Israel government, anger in the Israel electronic media reached flood level.
In the words of the Israel radio news announcer on Friday morning, Nov. 4th, three days after the decisive Israel election “I hesitate to say Shabbat Shalom”
When the Sabbath queen hovers over Israel this evening, transforming the Orthodox Jewish world into a collective inaccessible pumpkin, news anchors in Israel Channels 11,12,13 and IDF radio can have a field day reporting fake news about Orthodox Jews and about Israel’s national camp, who just swept the Israel elections.
This as a call to Hebrew speakers abroad to listen and note possible inaccuracies in Shabbat reportage, which you can easily pick up online…And communicate questionable reporting to us in Israel, where our agency will hold these publicly funded news stations to account.
Send feedback:
Dbedein@IsraelBehindTheNews.com